An investigation by Arkansas Business, found what they call several inconsistencies dealing with the medical board's disciplinary measures.
The attorney for the state medical board, Williams Trice III, tells Arkansas Business this week that board didn't yank Mann's license now because he's in custody.
If Mann were out on bond, it would take some emergency action against him to prevent him from practicing medicine. But the medical board's disciplinary history with Mann, and other Arkansas doctors, shows a record of seemingly inconsistent and arbitrary decisions.
Take the Mann case; before being accused of the bombing, Mann was accused of over-prescribing medications that led to the deaths of 10 of his patients.
There was another allegation that he traded drugs for sex.
Arkansas Business found that the board could have yanked Mann's license as far back as October 2003 when he prescribed methadone without proper credentials. It gave lighter sanctions instead, and Mann soon had all his privileges back.
Phillip Milligan, a Fort Smith attorney representing the survivors of a patient in one of two malpractice lawsuits against Mann, said he believes lives would have been saved had the board pulled Mann's license when it had the chance.
In response, the attorney for the medical board said the board thought restrictions on Mann were sufficient because they prevented him from prescribing controlled substances, though he still could write prescriptions for blood pressure medications or antibiotics.
But Arkansas Business has found other, less severe cases, where the board has taken the license of doctors. You can read about them all in this week's edition of Arkansas Business.